


A Rip in Time

by Buywood



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Gen, Multi, Spoilers, Time Travel AU, Voltron Spoilers, not too many spoilers but tagging just in case
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:46:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27594328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buywood/pseuds/Buywood
Summary: A mysterious man had appeared at the Galaxy Garrison after days of strange transmissions being received. And he’s not the only one - groups of people are appearing out of nowhere, and not all of them are friendly. When a time slip lets slip the future of the universe, who will stand by the universe’s side as everything the Galaxy Garrison thinks they know is torn down?Pre-Kerberos mission and post-Kerberos mission collide.
Relationships: Klance - Relationship, Matt and Katie (sibling relationship), adashi - Relationship, other family relationships + friendships, relationships not the main focus of the work
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! A new chapter should be posted weekly barring any super busy weeks that delay the posting date. Leave a kudos or comment if you enjoy!

In the twelfth room on the left of the main level of the Galaxy Garrison was an office. It was an office like any other office in the building; a spinning chair, cheap desk, small bulletin board on the wall, and any other items a worker decided were necessary. However, this room was of some significance. For the past few weeks, Sam Holt, Matt Holt, and Takashi Shirogane had been preparing for their mission to Kerberos, as had all support crew, staff, and family members of the three crew members. During this time, strange frequencies were being picked up by orbital satellites; no one could identify their nature, what they meant, or if they were simply interference. 

That is, until a voice became clear through the strange frequencies. It was a familiar voice, and it told them two things:  
1\. There was a problem, and there were those that would be coming to fix it - the voice said nothing of the nature of the problem.  
2\. The Galaxy Garrison needed to send a small team, that included Commander Iverson and the three crew members of the Kerberos mission, to the twelfth room on the left of the main level of the main Galaxy Garrison building. 

Whether or not to listen to these instructions was a matter of some debate, security being the main issue. Eventually, it was decided that a security team would accompany Sam, Matt, Shiro, and Iverson to the office room and let them enter only once the room was deemed secure. The debaters agreed that safety and caution were of utmost importance due to the cryptic and foreign nature of the transmission. 

And so it happens that a small security team entered the small office room in the main Galaxy Garrison building, on the main floor, and found a single man. The man was facing away from the door, towards the back wall, and sitting in the spinny chair. The security team registered that the man was unarmed and gestured for the four requested people to enter the room, which they were already doing anyway. 

“Hello,” said the man. He spun the chair around dramatically, looked Matt Holt dead in the eyes, and said, “We have some things to discuss.”

Naturally, this left Matt Holt gaping in shock; the reason the voice on the transmission was so familiar was now revealed to everyone in the room. The man sitting in the chair was not some strange alien as many had thought he would be. He was most obviously human. In fact, the man in the chair was Matt Holt. An older, scarred, longer-haired, and oddly serious-looking Matt Holt. 

Something strange was going on, and they were about to find out what.


	2. Explanations

Assuming, that is, that future Matt Holt ever stopped eating. It didn’t seem like he would - he was currently shovelling an insane number of donuts into his mouth at high speeds; he was clearly one of two things: extremely hungry, or excited about donuts. The reality was both. Not only was (future) Matt Holt hungry, it had also been a long time since he’d seen a donut, much less had one. 

“Are ye done yet, kid? We’ve got questions.” Commander Iverson glared at the kid - well, at Matt; kid didn’t really fit anymore. 

“Almost,” said future Matt Holt through a mouthful of donuts. “And I’m sure I’ve got answers, Commander.” Swallowing, Matt added, “There’s a lot to go through, so I’m going to need the devices I brought with me.”

“You aren’t getting those until we figure out what they are.”

“They’re databases that I’ve stored visual aids on, Commander. Nothing dangerous, basically the alien equivalent of a stored powerpoint.” 

Iverson shook his head. “Still need to get them cleared first.”

“Then I guess I’ll be eating donuts until you do.”

Iverson practically growled at that. Other Matt, Sam, and Shiro - watching from behind a two-way mirror - glanced at each other and did their best to hold in their laughter. It wasn’t a joke, and if it had been it wouldn’t’ve been a funny one, but confusion has an interesting effect on one’s sense of humor. 

Two hours later, someone managed to stop by with the devices future Matt Holt had brought with him. At that point, Iverson escorted future Matt to the debriefing room where several people - including the members of the Kerberos mission (and Adam, Katie, and Colleen Holt) were already waiting. 

“Alright, kid. What’s this all about?” asked Iverson. “We’d like the short version, please.”

“Of course, Commander. That’s why I needed my trusty visual aids to keep me on track.”

Taking a deep breath, Matt tapped the Altean device, triggering a holographic image of Kerberos to appear. “Everything you think you know is about to change. There’s an entire universe out there - and there’s more to it than we could ever have imagined. Years ago - for me, anyway - Kerberos was the farthest a human had ever traveled. The mission was supposed to be an embodiment of everything we had achieved, of how far humanity had advanced. Instead, it turned into a showing of how little we really knew.” A breath as everyone in the room waited for him to continue. “The Kerberos mission was successful up until a single point - and it was a big one.” 

Matt tapped the device projecting an image of Kerberos, and a video feed began to play. It was the video recorded during the Kerberos mission, the one that had proved to Katie Holt that the Galaxy Garrison was lying to everyone about what had really happened on Kerberos. After it played, Matt had the transmission the Galaxy Garrison had picked up play as well. 

The room was full of shocked faces, Sam, Matt and Shiro most of all - Adam, standing slightly behind and away from Shiro, reached out as if to touch Shiro on the shoulder, stopping at the last moment. 

“What-” Iverson began, but (future) Matt cut him off with a wave of his hand. 

“I’m not quite finished yet, Commander.” He smiled, but it was thin and very clearly fake. Old memories are painful to remember at the best of times, and this most certainly could not be considered the best of times. 

“Once the Galaxy Garrison caught that video and transmission, they told the public a lie - they claimed the Kerberos mission had crashed due to pilot error, and left it at that. A military funeral - closed casket because there weren’t any bodies - was held, during which the,” - here his voice broke slightly - “family members and loved ones were allowed to say goodbye. For the next few years, the world believed that Takashi Shirogane, Matt Holt, and Sam Holt were dead. Some people had suspicions that the Galaxy Garrison wasn’t telling the truth, but most of them kept quiet. My sister was not one of them - in a sense, anyway. She illegally hacked into the Galaxy Garrison’s computers and managed to see that footage before she was caught and banned from the premises. An amount of time later, she ran away and - also illegally - enrolled in the Galaxy Garrison as Pidge Gunderson, and cut her hair to add to the illusion. 

“Another amount of time later - sorry for not knowing the specifics, I was busy trying not to die on an alien ship - Shiro escaped from the aliens that had captured us, the ones known as the Galra. He crashed on Earth, near the Galaxy Garrison. The Garrison wanted him sedated and quarantined, but he had an urgent message and begged them to listen to him. They didn’t but before they could completely sedate him, former Garrison cadet Keith Kogane broke into the Galaxy Garrison and, with help from a few other cadets - including my sister - got him out and safely away from pursuing Garrison forces. 

“There they discovered a secret cavern and an alien ship - the Blue Lion. Shiro, Pidge, Lance, Hunk, and Keith ended up leaving the planet on the ship once it activated for Lance. At that point, they accidentally traveled through a wormhole and discovered what Voltron was. I’m not going to go into specifics of how, exactly, they managed to get there, but know that they did. And the universe is in a much better place because of it. 

“Voltron is a superweapon, and the universe’s only hope. It is made of five mechanical lions, piloted by the five paladins. Because of some strange - we’ll call it magic - known as Altean Alchemy, the lions are practically sentient beings; they choose their paladins, and they activate only for those they choose to. Working as a team, the five paladins - and the lions they are in - can fight separately or form Voltron. The current paladins are as follows: in the black lion, Keith, in the red lion, Lance, in the green lion, Pidge, in the yellow lion, Hunk, and in the blue lion, Allura, who is an alien and not someone you’d know.” Here (future) Matt paused for another breath, ignoring the stunned faces around him. “Don’t worry, Commander, I’ll make this last part quick. 

“Together, the paladins have worked together to save the universe an impressive number of times. They’ve faced robeasts, fleets of starships, and have adapted at an incredible speed for people who were thrown into this world without warning. I’m not going to go into detail about each battle they’ve fought because there’s not enough time, but know this; each of the paladins has proven time and time again that they are willing to do whatever it takes - and I mean whatever it takes - to save the universe. They are heroes, and they are a symbol of hope to the entire universe. 

“Right now, a time slip is occurring - people from my time are going to start appearing here, where you are. This includes some less-than-friendly aliens, but also allies as well. Some chaotically accurate math informed us that I’d be the first here - so, as I have done, I was to inform you generally of what has occurred in the future. I’m also supposed to - and plan on - helping bolster the defenses on this planet so we’ll be a little more prepared when the bad guys start arriving. I’m going to need your full cooperation for this, though - can I expect that, or am I going to have to go rogue again?”

Everyone stared at him, shock coating their features. “I’ll, uh, give you a moment,” (future) Matt said awkwardly, deactivating the device still projecting photos of the five paladins (and Shiro). 

Several moments later, Sam said, “So the first time we encountered alien lifeforms, they were hostile?”

(Future) Matt nodded. “The Galra Empire goes through the universe and colonizes - or destroys - plants and their inhabitants are usually forced to work for the empire. There is a small group of galra known as the Blade of Marmora that the Voltron Coalition works closely with. They’re on our side. Heck, one of their members is a paladin.”

Iverson asked a more pragmatic question. “And there are hostile aliens coming here? Because of this time slip?”

(Future) Matt nodded. “They’re coming, but so are the paladins and the Atlas. There’s not a lot we’ll be able to do to prepare before they get here - assuming Slav’s math is correct - but we’ll do what we can. I’ll do what we can.”

“Alright,” said Iverson. “What do we need to do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! The next chapter will go by a little faster, and people will start popping up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! New chapter today, here’s a little tip: I got tired of writing (future) Matt to make sure the difference was clear, so pre-Kerberos Matt isn’t in this chapter.

Matt Holt knew they didn’t believe him. Not all of them, not on everything. Honestly, he couldn’t blame them - it’s all a little crazy, even to him. He wouldn’t have believed himself if he had been himself before he’d been kidnapped and eventually traveled back in time. All of which brings him to the other problem - his head is killing him. He’s not sure if there’s some sort of time-sickness occurring, or if it’s all this thinking about himself in several different time periods, or what, but he’s in dire need of an ibuprofen, and it doesn’t seem like anyone has one to spare. 

Preparations began properly… yesterday? He’s pretty sure it was yesterday. Like he said, his head is having trouble, what with the...time difference and all. Anyway, preparations began recently, but things are going slowly. The people who don’t believe him, even though they’re keeping quiet, are causing trouble - if people aren’t willing to help, they’re not going to, and they’ll certainly try to get others to not help either. 

“So far, we’ve put everyone on high alert, armed them with knives and the knowledge that guns won’t save them, set up patrols, and had the pilots be ready to fly, also with the knowledge that the onboard weapons won’t save them, sir.”

“All right,” said Iverson, turning away from the lower-ranking officer reporting to him to look at Matt. “What else can we do?”

Matt shook his head. “Not much. We don’t have the time - or the resources - to build weapons capable of breaching Galra defenses. Basically, just get everyone ready to fight.”

Iverson’s eyes narrowed, his face scrunching as he scrutinized Matt. “We’ve already done that. What can we do that we haven’t already done?”

“Nothing I can think of.” Matt turned around, body facing the fence they were standing by, and looked up at the clear sky. “Actually,” he said as Iverson was preparing to walk away angrily. “We can hope and pray that Voltron shows up in time. Otherwise, we won’t last long.”

Iverson sighed. Two days ago was supposed to have been the launch marking the pinnacle of human achievement - having a future version of one of the crew members show up and inform them that they weren’t as ahead as they thought they were was disarming, to say the least. 

Matt turned back to the sky and said, “Commander?”

“Yes, Holt?”

Matt grinned like an imp. “Shiro found it dis-arming as well.”

“Wait, you said that like it was a pun. Why did you say that like it was a pun?” Matt turned around to see Shiro, with a full head of dark hair and no scar walking up, Adam walking next to him. This didn’t quite fit the events Matt remembered - he was certain Adam had broken up with Shiro. Huh. Maybe the extra time given to them after he appeared was helping them heal their relationship - helping them understand each other and each other’s reasons for doing certain things better. 

Matt glanced at the three people staring at him expectantly and nearly peed a little. This was not going to be fun to explain. 

Fortunately for him, he didn’t have to. Unfortunately for him and literally everyone else, it was because the Galra had arrived. 

\----

“Sir, your orders?” Shiro and Adam had headed off to who knows where the minute the ships appeared in the sky and had been replaced by a random lady in a gray uniform. 

Iverson was too busy gaping at the fleet of Galra - he assumed they were Galra, anyway; he’d never seen any before - cruisers that had just appeared out of nowhere to respond, so Matt said, “Tell the pilots to get ready, and make sure everyone can see what’s going on.”

The lady blinked. “You want me to livestream an alien invasion?”

Matt nodded excessively. “Yes, that. And make sure not to fire on them, that won’t do anything besides make them angry.”

The lady glanced at Commander Iverson, nodded, turned on her heel, and headed inside the building - presumably to set up a live stream. 

Iverson was still staring at the cruisers when he waved to unseen people. Matt started to walk up next to him when two pairs of hands grabbed him from behind. “What-” Matt paused, then started again, “I’m sorry, watt is going on?

“Look, kid.” Iverson finally turned around. “It’s nothing personal, but you’re under arrest for hindering government activities and interfering illegally on private property. You’ve convinced the entire Galaxy Garrison that there’s some mechanical hope for them to survive this, and you haven’t given them any way to defend themselves.”

“But- there isn’t one! There was only the time and the resources to do what we already have, and like I said, if you fire on them, you’re going to provoke them.”

Iverson shook his head. “We’ve got this from here.” He jerked his head at one of the people holding him back. “Take him to a cell. And make sure to put a screen displaying the livestream in his line of sight. Wouldn’t want anyone to be clued out.”

Matt let the guards drag him several feet towards the building before he decided to remind everyone that he’s not as weak as he was when he left for Kerberos. He jabbed his elbow into one guard’s solar plexus and kneed the other in the crotch, instinctively wincing in sympathy. 

“Wha-” The next guard didn’t even have time to get a single word out before Matt knocked him down too. 

“Oh, man,” Matt panted. “This is a lot harder in Earth gravity.” Unfolding from his crouched position, Matt sprinted over to the main building of the Garrison Complex where a crowd of people had gathered; his original plan had been to talk to Iverson and get him to see reason, but he was nowhere to be found - besides, something about the last time Matt had seen Iverson was bugging him, but he wasn’t sure what. Not yet, anyway. 

“Everyone, get down!” he yelled, still heading for the crowd as a small Galra fighter plane opened fire. Not many people listened to him, but there were approximately two good reasons for that.   
1\. People were too busy running from the Galra fighter plane (wings not included, apparently) that was heading straight for the crowd.   
2\. Apparently a crashing jet makes a lot of noise on the way down. 

It didn’t matter anyway; most people didn’t need to be told to get out of the way. Unfortunately, some did - Commander Iverson included. For whatever reason, he was standing directly in the falling ship’s path as dozens of other people ran away. 

On the other hand, Matt Holt wasn’t exactly running away either. Iverson - annoying as he was - wasn’t about to die if there was something he could do about it. So he gave a final burst of concentrated effort, tripped, fell onto Iverson, knocked him down, and proceeded to roll away - dragging Iverson with him - like a five year-old on a grass hill in the summer. 

They didn’t get very far. Rolling on flat concrete when one person is dead weight - for whatever reason - isn’t easy. And the plane is still coming, falling faster as gravity continues to pull. 

It’s close enough to read the identification number on the side, now, and Iverson still isn’t moving. There’s nowhere for Matt to go - he wouldn’t be able to outrun the ship at this point - and Matt isn’t leaving Iverson behind. 

He closes his eyes, unable to watch the ship continue to fall - not much farther now - and he lies there, on cold cement with an unmoving but still breathing Iverson next to him. 

He’s still lying there when the sound of scraping metal and a small explosion sound. 

And he’s still lying there two minutes later, when people have started to gather nearby to gawk. 

And he’s still there three minutes after that, when he realizes he isn’t dead. 

And when he opens his eyes, he smiles; he knows what all the people are gawking at. 

Landed on a large open space on Garrison property, the remains of a Galra fighter in its paws, is a giant green lion. 

And inside is his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, same deal as the other chapters regarding kudos/comments :). The next chapter will be out for sure in one week, might be sooner.


	4. Chapter Four

Preparing for an attack that’s already happening isn’t easy. It means you’re behind, on the defense, at a disadvantage. Fortunately, they have Voltron and the Atlas - which means they’re almost on the same playing field as their enemies. Why almost? Because if a team is only as strong as its weakest member, then their team isn’t strong at all. Of course, Matt, Shiro, and the Paladins had known this from the get-go; they weren’t expecting their past selves to understand and be equipped to deal with the things they would end up facing. 

Unfortunately, knowing beforehand they would be at a disadvantage wasn’t helpful in any sense. In fact, some Atlas crewmembers started underperforming - anxiety makes people do that. Fortunately, Shiro was able to keep them calm enough to get everything setup, but there was no way he could’ve prepared so their past selves would stay completely calm. 

“Shiro, I’m going to help Matt get the comm viewer set up and get people in safe locations.” Pidge grabbed a small bag from the cargo bay of her lion before strapping her helmet onto her belt and heading outside. 

“Copy that. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Pidge said before muttering to herself. “I’m going to need it.”

“Katie!” Matt, long haired and tall, was standing just outside her lion, in front of a crowd of people who were busy gawking. 

Pidge tried to scowl mockingly, but ended up smiling anyway. “You didn’t last very long without me here to help you out, did you?”

Matt huffed. “I was doing fine, thank you. No help was needed.”

“Really? Because you looked half dead when I got here. Also, there’s a dead looking, purple version of younger Iverson lying on the ground behind you.”

Matt whirled around. “What?! Why is he purple?”

Pidge rolled her eyes as she walked over to the crowd in front of the building containing the debriefing room. “I think it’s because that’s a Galra shifter who convinced you they were Iverson.” 

“Wait, what-”

Pidge glanced up at the sky as several Galra attack ships were shot down by a blue lion. “We have to hurry. Matt, come on. We don’t have much time.”

Jogging to keep up with her, Matt said, “What do we need to do?” 

“I need to get something set up in the debriefing room. I’m going to need a wide-lense camera that can stream things, and I’m going to need it hooked up to the ongoing stream.” She glanced at him. “You did start the stream, right?”

“I- I think so? It should be started, I asked someone to start it, but that whole thing with Iverson-”

“Ugh. You are so annoying. Figure it out, then get the past versions of me, the other paladins, Shrio, dad, you, Adam, whoever you think necessary, I don’t care - into the debriefing room. Oh, and make sure the other Garrison workers know to get inside and take precautionary measures like they would if bombs were being dropped in the area.”

Matt scrunched his nose. They were almost to the crowd. “That sounds like a lot of work, what exactly are you going to be doing?”

“I’m going to be setting up the comms viewer in the debriefing room and-” she stopped as people in the crowd started screaming. Pivoting on her heel to find several Galra foot soldiers approaching, she drew her bayard. Instead of her normal hand-to-hand combat weapon, it took the form of a small pistol, which she used to shoot several of the soldiers before they were close enough for her to use her normal weapon. 

Pidge turned to find Matt staring at her, hands in his pockets. Slowly, once he saw that she was looking at him, he took his hands out of his pockets and tapped his wrist where a watch would be. Rolling her eyes, Pidge nudged an unconscious Galra soldier with her foot before running to catch up with Matt. 

“Tie them up or something so they won’t kill you when they wake up!” she yelled to a Garrison guard as they passed by. Ignoring the shocked stares she and Matt got as they ran toward the building, she said, “That’s what else I’ll be doing.” 

Matt huffed again. “The workload still feels a little unfair to me.”

“Deal with it.” Pidge ran toward the debriefing room. “And deal with it quickly.”

Matt turned toward the crowd as the crowd turned to him - most of it anyway. The rest were busy staring at the space battle going on above their heads. 

“Hey!” Everyone looked at Matt. “If you aren’t Shiro, Adam, Sam Holt, uh, Matt Holt, Katie Holt, Keith, Lance, or Hunk, then go ahead and take standard air raid precautions. If you are one of those people, get to the debriefing room.” The crowd blinked at him. “Quickly.”

\----

“Why isn’t there a plug? There needs to be a plug!” Pidge kicked a chair as a small group of people walked in, some of them very young, all of them familiar faces. 

“Is everything alright? Do you need help?” 

“I’m good, dad. Besides, you haven’t been kidnapped and sent to an alien scientist work camp yet, so I doubt you’d be much help.”

Sam nodded, his eyes distant and confused. “Okay.”

“You all good, Katie?” Long-haired Matt walked into the room holding a small bag which presumably had the camera in it. 

“Yup, all good. Just a few more seconds and I’ll have the comm viewer up and running.”

“What’s a comm viewer?” little Hunk asked, young Lance, Keith, and Katie nodding in agreement with his question. 

“It’s a thing, that does a thing, that lets you see things.” Pidge yelped as something shocked her. 

“...what?” asked Adam, confused. 

Matt finished tying his hair back and stepped in to explain. “She means it’s a device that lets you listen in on comm conversations while seeing the people in question.” He glanced at Pidge’s setup. “I’m guessing that this one is going to let you see all or most of the people at once, instead of just showing who’s talking.” 

Pidge nodded. “Exactly. That’s what I said.”

Matt smiled and rolled his eyes. “Yup. Exactly what you said.”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Pidge said, “There!” as several displays popped up in front of them. On one, four small-ish icons could be seen, showing every paladin in their lion except Pidge, because she was currently in the room. On another, Shiro, with a full head of white hair and a scar across his face, could be seen. On the third, a view of the battle was visible. 

Once Pidge turned the volume up, indistinguishable shouting could be heard as each person shot at enemies and warned friends of foes. 

“What-” said Shiro, watching himself on the screen. “What do we do now? Also.” he whirled toward long-haired Matt. “Is that why you made a joke about an arm?”

Matt was saved from answering as Pidge said, “Now I call my lion. That’s when the real fun begins.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I should be able to post the next chapter as planned, but the week after that might be a little iffy.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, Iverson's missing...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. hello. First of all, sorry for not updating for a while - I had tech issues and couldn't write, so that was great. All better now, though! (much better) So here's chapter five (is that the right number? I can't remember.) It's not super long, but hopefully I'll update with chapter six soon. I hope you enjoy!

“The real fun, huh?” 

“Shut up, Matt.”

By the time Pidge had been able to get back in the air, the other paladins and Shiro had already dealt with the force of Galra. Mostly, anyway - a few battle cruisers had retreated, and they hadn’t bothered with chasing them. Right now, their primary goal was to help the past versions of - well, of themselves - be prepared for the rest of the Galra that were coming. (According to Pidge and Co.’s math - and guesswork - the entire force that had been busy invading Earth in their time was going to come here. Not willingly, but everyone doubted they’d complain about an easier invasion target.)

Currently, people were taking orders from Iverson’s second-in-command - for whatever reason, no one could find Iverson - the real Iverson, anyway. The Galra shifter that had taken his place was conscious, but uncooperative - and they were too busy to all focus on getting information out of him. They had assigned someone to talk with him and see if he would, well, talk, but so far nothing had changed. 

“Sir. The, uh, orange thing with the… orange? It’s giving me an error message.”

“Here, Martha, let me give you a hand,” Sam pushed past the younger version of himself - gently - and gestured for Martha to lead him to the erring device. 

“So, what do we do now?” young Matt Holt glanced at older Shiro. “Some cool space things, maybe?”

“We let Sam prepare you for the invasion,” said Keith.

“And see if we can find Iverson,” Shiro added.

“Do we have to find Iverson? I mean, it’s not like he’s been super nice to us.” Everyone glanced at Lance. 

“Well, I mean, he did tell us to work as a team, and that’s been pretty powerful advice, so.”

“Oh, come on.” Everyone looked at Lance again. “I was only joking.”

“We know, Lance,” Keith said, glancing reassuringly in his direction. “You’re too kind to actually leave someone behind willingly.”

“And smart enough to know that you’d be in big trouble if you did,” added Pidge, the rest of the group nodding in unison.

Younger Sam, who had been watching the proceedings for the past few minutes, smiled. “I’m glad you all found yourselves a team together. It looks like you make quite the group.”

“We do,” said Shiro.

“Like I said,” said Coran. “All it takes to form a good team bond is a strong woman yelling at you until you throw space goo at her.”

Allura rolled her eyes and sighed with the rest of the team. This was perhaps the twelfth time Coran had said this today alone. He wasn’t wrong, but people were getting pretty tired of hearing it. 

“Alright. Pidge, head to your lion and start scanning to see if you can find Iverson. Hunk and Allura, see if there’s anything you can do to help Sam; Lance, come with me, and Shiro - I guess you can handle yourself.”

“Sure thing, Keith! Oh, sorry. Sure thing, Team Leader!” said Lance, saluting. 

Keith rolled his eyes and smiled as Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Shiro all glanced knowingly at each other. Everyone stood there for a minute, enjoying the temporary calm happiness brought with it. 

“Alright, get going. We’ve got a lot to do, I guess, and we really need to find Iverson,” said Keith, breaking the silence. 

“Alright. Let’s get going.” Shiro smiled at the others’ backs as they headed out. “Coran, are you in position?”

\----

“I found him.” Pidge typed frantically, speaking as she did. 

“That’s good, Pidge. Where-” Keith started.

“It’s bad, actually. He’s on one of those Galra cruisers - the shifter must have kidnapped him and got him up there somehow. 

“How would they have done that?” asked Lance. “They weren’t even here until we were. And how did the shifter get there in the first place, for the same reason?”

“I am not sure, but we need to get him out of there, soon. It will be difficult to engage the cruisers in combat when they have a hostage.”

“The princess is right, you know. We need a plan, and quickly. Any ideas?” Pidge couldn’t see Coran, but he could tell he was getting nervous. He always did, when danger was near. He could handle it - they all could - but he couldn’t help becoming concerned over their safety, especially when the princess was involved. 

“I think- I think the only way is to go in on foot. Or by jetpack, or whatever. Taking ships is too risky, if we don’t, we might not show up on their scanners, and that gives us a bigger chance.”

A pause, then, “What if we got in our lions and distracted them while someone else - Matt - goes in individually?”

“Works for me, Keith. Any objections?”

“Not from me,” said Pidge. “Just stay safe, Matt. “

“You too.”

“How are the base preparations going, Hunk? Allura?” asked Shiro.

“Not bad. We’ve gotten almost as far as we’d be able to, and briefed a bunch of people. Allura’s been working on sending out briefings to other countries and space agencies, so hopefully they get the memo soon.”

“Alright. Warn them we’re going to start an attack, then get going. Good luck everyone.”

“Good luck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you got this far, great! If you scrolled to the end (for whatever reason) hello! If you did read, thank you for doing so. Please leave a kudos or comment!


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